Charles Saumarez Smith, who has been secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts since 2007, is to become senior director of Blain Southern, the London gallery which represents the Chapman Brothers, Rachel Howard and Michael Joo among others. This is the first time Saumarez Smith has taken a job at a commercial gallery, and he has previously headed both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. The art historian said of his appointment ‘I have known Harry Blain and Graham Southern ever since they took the lease on Burlington Gardens for Haunch of Venison. I greatly respect their work and that of the artists they represent, several of whom are RAs. I am very much looking forward to working with them all, using my experience to build upon Blain|Southern’s achievements.’ Saumarez Smith’s appointment comes following Julia Peyton-Jones, the former co–director of the Serpentine in London to Thaddaeus Ropac last year.
In 1990 Saumarez Smith was appointed as Head of Research at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London before becoming director of the National Portrait Gallery in 1994. There he staged exhibitions by several photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber and Mario Testino. From 2001 to 2002 Saumarez Smith held the Slade Professorship at Oxford University, leaving to become the director of the National Gallery. There he coordinated the purchase of Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks in 2004 for £22 million. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours and knighted in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
27 July 2018
